Primary school science fans given £500 of new books

One lucky primary school has received a literary boost with a donation of 66 books from a Yorkshire-based chemical company to mark National Share a Story Month.

Cross Hills based Airedale Chemical has gifted £500 of books to Sutton in Craven Primary School as part of the ongoing partnership it formed last year.

The donation includes science books such as ‘New Star Science’ and ‘A Mind Boggling History of Scientists and Inventors’ as well as a range of reading books aimed at children in each year group, during May’s National Share a Story Month which aims to bring children and books together.

Mrs Jill Fletcher, deputy headteacher at Sutton in Craven Primary School, said: “We’re over the moon that we have been able to increase the number and variety of books in our library with this generous donation.
“Our relationship with Airedale Chemical began in 2017 when we were treated to a classroom talk and on-site day of experiments. This really fuelled our pupils’ interest in STEM subjects so now we’ve expanded our collection of science books with the latest releases which the children can’t wait to read.”

The books were officially handed over to the school by Airedale Chemical head of marketing, Daniel Marr, during a special assembly.

Daniel added: “We’re so pleased to be able to enhance the school’s resources with this book donation. We were blown away by the pupils’ enthusiasm when they visited Airedale Chemical and hope that the addition of these science books will further feed their enthusiasm for STEM at school. We may even have a future chemist in our midst!”

The partnership with Sutton in Craven Primary School is part of the Airedale Foundation, the part of the chemical company dedicated to corporate social responsibility and is one of a number of community engagement projects being rolled out in 2018.

Airedale Chemical has been based in Cross Hills since 1994 and employs more than 100 people, providing chemicals and contract manufacturing to markets including agriculture, dairy, water treatment and waste management.